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By Ashley Lavallee-Koenig

$3,800 PER UNIT

Development grant coming to Sylvan Lake to encourage missing middle housing

Oct 30, 2024 | 1:40 PM

The Town of Sylvan Lake will soon be offering a new Multi-family Tax Grant to new homeowners in an effort to encourage the development of more missing middle housing.

Council approved the grant initiative in their October 28 regular meeting.

The town will be providing one-time grants of $3,800 per unit, intended to help offset the cost of property taxes for new homeowners and incentivize the development of smaller, more attainable units. The value of the grant is based on the annual median property tax issued on row house and plex type housing units.

Applications are expected to open November 1, 2024, and run until January 15, 2027. Interested residents can apply once they have received a development permit, however, the funds will not be transferred to the property’s tax account until the unit has reached the framing stage. This guideline was added in an effort to reduce the likelihood the grant will be applied to bare and unimproved land held by developers or builders.

Overall, the grant should contribute to the following objectives:

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1. Housing units get built and the property achieves an improved value.
2. Benefits the intended end user which is a new homeowner.
3. Encourages the development of a greater variety of smaller type housing units that are either owned or rented.
4. The program can be administered with greater ease and efficiency.
5. The Housing Accelerator Funds dedicated to the program are able to be spent by January 2028, the timeline mandated in the town’s agreement with the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

The funding for the grant, budgeted at $552,000, is covered by a $1.4 million advance received from the CMHC as part of the Housing Accelerator Fund. This budget is for an estimated 120 applications over the next two years. In the event the number of applications far exceeds estimates, the town reserves the right to terminate the program or extend it by increasing the budget to accomodate additional applications.

The move supports the town’s Housing Accelerator Action Plan initiatives, including the committment to permit 555 new housing units by January 30, 2027.

Missing middle housing can be considered housing types that fall between higher density apartment and low density single family development and tend to be an affordable option.